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Rose Care for Lovely Rose Blooms

Provide rose care throughout the year. Roses need to be dead-headed, fed and watered properly. They are prone to diseases and pests, but will be healthy with good nurturing and care.

Roses require a lot of care. I have found that rose care becomes easy by doing a little every week. The rewards are more than you can imagine.

Dead-heading Roses

Dead-headed means that blooms are removed as soon as the blooms died down. Cut them at a point just above an outward-facing bud or a strong shoot. By dead-heading you encourage a plant to flower a second time.

Rose care toward the end of the flowering season; cut your roses back to the first bud below the flower. Only cut the stalk of the flower itself, before pruning time. Do not let seed heads form on your rose bushes for the first two years. The plant first needs to be established.

If you want to dead-head floribundas, you need to cut them back quite hard. The whole of the dead clump of flowers must be cut back to the first bud below them, i.e. which means the first stem underneath them. With hybrid teas cut just above an outward facing shoot.

Feeding Roses

Water your roses well at least once a week, but adjust your watering schedule to suit your climate. The ground must not dry out too much. Because roses are deep rooting, water needs to penetrate deep into the ground. Water your roses in the morning. Night watering encourages pests and diseases.

Roses enjoy a mild dose of plant food every two weeks. Use plant food high in nitrogen and specially formulated for rose care. Place rich organic compost on your plants to encourage a beautiful display. Do this just before they bloom.

It is also wise to apply 5 to 8 cm of compost in winter after pruning. This will assist in keeping the moisture in the ground and the roots cool. As the compost breaks down it will release valuable nutrients into the soil. For best result apply compost before and after flowering.

Pruning Roses

Follow my advice, and with a bit of practice you will be an expert at
pruning roses
. Keep to the essential pruning requirements of each type of rose and ensure an abundance of roses and healthy plants.

Rose Pests and Diseases

Rose pests and diseases include scale insects, rust, black spot, nutrient deficiency, stem canker, wilt, red spider mite, thrips, caterpillars or aphids. You may experience more than this during your rose care. I have found that plants that have a very good organically healthy soil are generally healthy. Their resistance is much stronger.

I favor natural remedies as my first choice in rose care. Here are some proven remedies:

It has been discovered that planting chives (Allium tuberosum) and parsley (Petroselinum crispum) under roses, discourages insects. This is called companion planting.

Make a spray by adding one teaspoon of dish washing liquid and 1 teaspoon of crushed garlic, to 1.5 l of water. Boil and let this cool. Drain and put into a rose spray bottle. This will discourage certain pests. Ask at your local nursery for organic natural pesticides suitable for rose care.

I have provided more information about pests and diseases on our
plant health
page.